Literacy Learning Zone

Image from Unsplash: Photo Credit Kimberly Farmer March 13th Before the world closed the doors indefinitely I made a quick stop at our library grabbed stacks (and stacks) of books and a few movies to entertain the family during the unknown months ahead. The pile waited -- I imagined enjoying my time at home, spending hours upon hours just reading with my feet up, living in a new book a day. But, for me, I couldn't focus. Fall into a book. Feel lost in another world. All my attention online had my brain dinging like a pinball machine. The pile waited -- The extended lease is up on all the library materials in 5 days. Now I am frantically trying to read and read and read in an attempt to move my to-be-read books to the finished, completed,  happily read and ready to return to the library pile. The pile patiently waited.  Some books will be pleasantly devoured. Some books will be a quick read.  Others will be returned with  a desperate plea to be checked out again. June...

Check out other favorite Picture Book Lists #pb10for10 ______________________________________________________________ As we finish up our summer #cyberPD conversations, I'm quickly reminded that August is right around the corner and I need to start thinking about my picture book list to share. Ten books I love. Ten books I want to share. Ten books that I can't live without in my classroom. Ten books. I love coming up with lists of picture books I adore for various reasons. However, this year I came up with the most brilliant idea! (Well, at least I thought it was brilliant!)  Here are the picture books I can't live without  ... because these are the LAST 10(+3)  picture books I most recently purchased!  ______________________________________________________________ 1.  If I Built a School   by Chris Van Dusen My daughters read If I Built a House and If I Built a Car over and over and over. They couldn't wait to read thi...

__________________________________________________ The March Slice of Life Story Challenge hosted  at the  Two Writing Teachers . Join us for a month of writing! __________________________________________________ My almost eight year old girls are swimming in the seas of graphic novels. They started with the popular "classics" of Smile and Sisters . I read these books years ago, but cannot recall the details of the content. I wonder if it's appropriate for second graders, but I understand that some things will just go over their heads. I decided I better reread these books, but also thought about introducing them to another graphic novel series I thought they would enjoy: Babymouse. I brought home the first five books in the series and Peyton devoured three of them in two days. I agreed to bring home the rest of the ...

__________________________________________________ The March Slice of Life Story Challenge hosted  at the  Two Writing Teachers . Join us for a month of writing! __________________________________________________ A couple days ago, in my {Today I} slice , I mentioned that the girls and I visited the Usborne book sale at the YMCA ... with no intention of buying any books. I just purchased a bunch of books through the Scholastic book clubs, and I also know that Usborne books are usually more expensive. But we ended up by eight new books. I found two great titles as did my girls, including a little gift for my school's social worker and psychologist. We have many kids who come from hard places, who bring a lot of baggage to school, who are just having a hard time with life. It is draining on us -- teachers, social workers, an...

__________________________________________________ The March Slice of Life Story Challenge hosted  at the  Two Writing Teachers . Join us for a month of writing! __________________________________________________ One of my very favorite moments of the day is after the homework is complete, jammies are on, and teeth are shiny and clean. Technically, it's still part of their homework, but we don't call it that -- unless Daddy looks at his watch and mentions, "It's getting late. Can't we just skip it tonight?" "Uh, nope. Sorry. It's part of their homework," I explain, winking at my girls. We meet in my room. One girl on each side of me as I'm snuggled in the middle of our big bed with one or two books (or several, if we were recently at the library). The other night we finished the fourth b...

I love sharing book titles with close friends, so I'm happy you are here! I want to share a book that you must add to your to-be-read list. Ruth Ayres has a brand new book titled  Enticing Hard-To-Reach Writers   published by Stenhouse Publishers. It's another must read from Ruth. There are many professional development books available to learn about mastering our craft of teaching.   However, there are only a few that make a true impact -- and this is one book that weaves raw truth, research, practical ideas, and story all in one {cute} little package.  In  Enticing Hard-To-Reach Writers , Ruth allows her worlds to collide during the creation:  "In this book, I entwine my three story lines as educator, momma, and writer." (p. 6) And she does this in an amazing way through sharing stories of her family, adoption, children living in hard places -- and doing their best  -- and healing. She shares how we can use research ...